Written Answers Monday 15 August 2005

Scottish Executive

Ambulance Service

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many calls requiring deployment of an ambulance or paramedic were made in each of the last five years and how many such calls were found to be hoaxes, broken down by NHS board area.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is provided in the following tables.

  

NHS Board Area
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03


Total Responses
Hoax
Total Responses
Hoax
Total Responses
Hoax


Argyll and Clyde
24,619
85
25,613
62
25,688
86


Ayrshire and Arran
21,121
83
23,942
117
24,705
85


Borders
5,444
15
6,049
13
6,274
7


Dumfries and Galloway
6,921
20
8,257
16
8,796
35


Fife
19,836
58
21,289
96
23,946
80


Forth Valley
12,765
32
13,971
33
16,220
40


Grampian
21,065
84
22,818
91
26,142
52


Greater Glasgow
71,057
182
75,392
199
78,615
210


Highland
9,453
49
10,092
47
10,501
49


Lanarkshire
31,067
126
33,508
146
36,150
112


Lothian
50,485
168
52,586
176
55,702
145


Orkney
398
0
384
0
419
0


Shetland
603
0
523
0
521
0


Tayside
22,694
75
25,181
100
26,207
73


Western Isles
1,034
7
1,231
3
1,277
13


Scotland
298,562
984
320,836
1,099
341,163
987



  

NHS Board Area
2003-04
2004-05


Total Responses
Hoax
Total Responses
Hoax


Argyll and Clyde
28,391
86
32,064
75


Ayrshire and Arran
28,494
107
31,189
145


Borders
7,125
11
7,772
24


Dumfries and Galloway
9,768
34
10,125
30


Fife
26,434
57
27,030
82


Forth Valley
17,511
68
18,268
55


Grampian
34,861
131
33,874
134


Greater Glasgow
90,874
258
85,387
261


Highland
12,623
55
12,904
60


Lanarkshire
46,413
161
46,293
174


Lothian
63,271
195
66,135
263


Orkney
471
2
479
1


Shetland
620
2
608
0


Tayside
26,880
65
27,747
99


Western Isles
1,500
7
1,538
12


Scotland
395,236
1,239
401,413
1,415

Drug Misuse

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the additional £4 million for drug action teams was allocated and how much each drug action team (a) bid for and (b) was allocated.

Hugh Henry: On 1 July 2005, the Scottish Executive announced the following allocation by drug action team (DAT) area. The sum of proposals received from each DAT is also detailed.

  

Drug Action Team
Sum of Proposals
Allocation


Aberdeen City
£844,532
£102,000


Aberdeenshire
£816,000
£68,000


Angus
£601,773
£77,584


Argyll and Clyde
£1,542,759
£238,000


Ayrshire and Arran
£966,123
£117,781


Borders
£315,702
£18,877


Dumfries and Galloway
£574,000
£210,800


Dundee City
£530,458
£251,038


East Lothian
£450,322
£105,654


Edinburgh City
£1,062,435
£470,564


Fife
£1,264,682
£549,212


Forth Valley
£1,616,160
£242,680


Greater Glasgow
£1,840,350
£904,200


Highland
£1,603,000
£54,400


Lanarkshire
£682,878
£68,000


Midlothian
£354,029
£20,225


Moray
£256,634
£68,000


Orkney
£124,754
£19,720


Perth and Kinross
£547,000
£77,584


Shetland
£60,000
£13,600


Western Isles
£71,600
£9,560


West Lothian
£596,740
£329,058



  Following reassurances from drug action teams of expected impact, it is anticipated that the funding will be allocated to the relevant NHS board in August.

Drug Misuse

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria were for allocation to the drug action teams of their share of the additional £4 million.

Hugh Henry: The additional drug treatment and rehabilitation money was allocated to drug action teams (DAT) on the basis of the quantified impact of DAT proposals on the three identified national priorities namely: increasing the number of clients entering treatment; reducing waiting times and increasing the range of interventions, and on evidence of deliverability within agreed timescales.

  In terms of "evidence of deliverability within agreed timescales" we considered DAT performance to date and looked for clearly planned, well thought out proposals which included some indication of how the aim of the proposal would be achieved with timescales and a brief breakdown of cost. In particular we looked for proposals which complemented existing provision (i.e. filled a clearly identified and evidenced gap in existing services or provided additionality to existing provision), proposals which demonstrated a strategic approach to development and proposals which had secured part-funding from elsewhere. The underlying principles of Best Value and Integrated Care were also considered.

Drug Misuse

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors the activity of drug action teams.

Hugh Henry: Drug action teams (DAT) are required to submit annual Corporate Action Plans to the Scottish Executive. These plans detail key actions undertaken and planned for the year ahead in terms of identified national priorities. Drugs specific spend for both the previous and forthcoming year is also reported.

  The Executive provides written feedback to each DAT and meets with DATs to discuss specific issues as appropriate.

Fair Trade

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS boards purchase fair trade products.

Mr Andy Kerr: Information on how many NHS boards purchase fair trade products is not held centrally.

Fertility Services

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that the number of sperm donors for assisted conception treatment on the NHS remains at the required level.

Lewis Macdonald: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-17619 on 1 August 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Freedom of Information

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, there have been any changes in its practices in respect of recording meetings, telephone calls and e-mail exchanges and, if so, what these changes were and whether there has been guidance issued to ministers and officials regarding these matters and, if so, whether that guidance will made public.

George Lyon: Guidance on recordkeeping is constantly under review. Much of the Executive’s internal guidance has been updated and adapted this year to reflect the transition from paper to electronic recordkeeping that is currently underway. An updated Records Management Manual reflecting these changes should be issued around the end of 2005. The Records Management Manual is published on the Executive's website.

  Training is available to Scottish Executive staff covering a range of good practice issues, including on the style and content of records of meetings. The Executive’s recommended best practice is that minutes of meetings should record key discussion points and key decisions, and that they should be published where possible in line with the Executive’s general commitment to transparency and openness.

Health

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to NHS boards in respect of the provision of physiotherapy for stroke victims.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive has not issued specific guidance to NHS boards on the provision of physiotherapy to people who have had a stroke. Each board has the autonomy to determine the level of service provision on the basis of local needs and priorities. Provision in each NHS board will be informed by the advice of a Managed Clinical Network for Stroke, which is involved in all aspects of care and rehabilitation planning. Funding from the Chronic Heart Disease/Stroke Strategy has allowed many boards to recruit additional physiotherapy support.

  Although not specific to physiotherapy, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland will be developing a best practice statement on stroke rehabilitation. This will complement the existing evidence-based guideline for the rehabilitation of stroke patients produced by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. This specifies that "all patients who have difficulties with movement following stroke should have access to a physiotherapist specialising in stroke. Physiotherapy treatment should be based on an assessment of each patient’s unique problems".

Health

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide information on the (a) waiting time for treatment following diagnosis and (b) any delays in (i) issuing equipment, (ii) providing access to speech therapists and CT scanners and (iii) in the journey of care in respect of stroke victims, broken down by NHS board.

Mr Andy Kerr: Patients who suffer a stroke are admitted to hospital as an emergency so there are no formal waiting time targets set for the various treatments following diagnosis. They should receive immediate medical assessment, with all relevant investigations, including CT scan, carried out within 48 hours of admission and no later than seven days.

  There are no formal waiting time targets for the issue of specific equipment for stroke patients, for access to speech therapists and CT scanners or for stages in the journey of care for stroke patients. However, each NHS board has a duty to ensure that patients have access to these when they need it.

  If a patient presents to their GP with a transient ischaemic attack, also known as a TIA or a mini-stroke, an appointment will be arranged for them at a neurovascular clinic. The Scottish Executive’s Chronic Heart Disease/Stroke Strategy recommends that these patients should be seen within seven days and ideally within 72 hours of their event.

Health

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to monitor physical activity participation within the population.

Mr Andy Kerr: There are three national surveillance tools used to monitor physical activity levels in Scotland. These are: the Scottish Health Survey which monitors overall levels of physical activity in Scotland among adults; the Health Education Population Survey which monitors changes in knowledge, attitudes, motivation and action among adults around physical activity, and the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children, a World Health Organization cross-national collaborative study which compares Scottish children at ages 11, 13 and 15 to children of the same age in other countries.

  Targets within the National Strategy for Sport, Sport 21, which relate to physical activity, will be measured through the Scottish Health Survey, the Scottish Opinion Survey and data compiled from schools by education authorities.

Health

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure that women aged 50 to 70 do not lose their place in the three-year cycle of NHS breast screening when changing GP.

Mr Andy Kerr: Six to eight weeks before breast screening appointments are due to commence for women from a given GP practice, a Prior Notification List (PNL) is issued to the practice by the breast screening centre. The PNL contains the details of every woman at that practice who is eligible for screening. GPs are requested to add women from their practice in the eligible age range who are not on the PNL, for example those who have recently joined the practice.

  GPs can also refer any women over 50 for breast screening if her screening appointment is due when she joins the practice, even if women from her new practice are not scheduled to be screened at that time.

Health

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many admissions there were to hospitals due to incidents at the seaside in each year since 1997.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available from central statistical returns.

  Injuries and their causes are recorded on hospital discharge data using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10).

  ICD10 can identify "place of occurrence" for incidents resulting in injury but the category that includes "seaside" (e.g. beach, sea, seashore) also applies to a range of other locations, 27 in total. Examples of other locations captured by the same ICD10 code include: canal, caravan site, hill, mountain and railway line.

  Central statistical returns cannot explicitly identify "seaside" from the 27 locations.

Justice

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16432 by Colin Boyd QC on 8 July 2005, how many of the individual charges with a guilty verdict resulted from a guilty plea and in how many cases the convictions were after trial, and how many "not proven" verdicts there were, in each year from 2002-03 to 2004-05.

Colin Boyd, QC: Further to the answer to question S2W-16432, between April 2002 and March 2005 there were 168 charges involving either a statutory racial offence or a racial aggravation which resulted in a verdict of "not proven". A breakdown of this figure into financial years, statutory charges and racial aggravations is provided in the following table:

  Number of individual charges reported (as a statutory racial charge or racial aggravation) which resulted in a verdict of "not proven" by financial year.

  

 
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
Total


Statutory Charge
20
16
18
54


Aggravation
46
45
23
114


Total
66
61
41
168



  The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s national database does not record for the financial years 2002-03 to 2004-05 whether a guilty verdict was as a result of a trial or a plea of guilty. A change has been made to the database to allow this information to be collected and the first full financial year for which it will be available is 2005-06.

Justice

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of people arrested have (a) been referred for treatment for one or more addictions, (b) been allocated a place for addiction treatment within prison, (c) been allocated a place for addiction treatment outwith prison and (d) completed an addictions course in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Cathy Jamieson: The information requested is not available.

NHS Hospitals

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Ayr County Hospital was included in a trawl for possible disposal to other public bodies and, if so, whether there were any positive responses.

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what valuation was placed on Ayr County Hospital and associated land immediately prior to its sale in June 1999 and on what date the valuation was set.

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what clawback clause was inserted into the contract of sale of Ayr County Hospital to cover site enhancement as a consequence of changed planning conditions.

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what changes to planning conditions were made following the sale of Ayr County Hospital in June 1999.

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what value the purchaser of the Ayr County Hospital site received from any changes to planning conditions and whether any reimbursement was made to the NHS as a consequence of site value uplift.

Mr Andy Kerr: This is a matter for NHS Ayrshire and Arran as successor body to Ayrshire and Arran Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The information requested is not held centrally.

NHS Staff

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS training places for (a) diagnostic and (b) therapeutic radiographers there were in each year since 1997.

The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:

Mr Andy Kerr: Information on the number of diagnostic and therapeutic training places is available for years 2001 to 2004. This information was not collected by all universities for years 1997 to 2000 and information for 2005 is not yet available as the intake has not been finalised.

  

 
2001
2002
2003
2004


Diagnostic
297
335
327
352


Therapeutic
70
87
72
76

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget is for its Health and Food Co-ordinator for this year and each of the next three years.

Mr Andy Kerr: The budget for the Scottish Food and Health Co-ordinator for the current year is £70,000. Figures for the next three years will be similar to this, subject to a projected compound 3% annual increase to account for inflation.

  Figures for the budget include salary, travel and subsistence expenses and costs for administrative support.

NHS Staff

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget is for its Physical Activity Co-ordinator for this year and each of the next three years.

Mr Andy Kerr: The budget for the Scottish Physical Activity and Health Co-ordinator for the current year is £60,000. Figures for the next three years will be similar to this, subject to a projected compound 3% annual increase to account for inflation.

  Figures for the budget include salary, travel and subsistence expenses and costs for administrative support.

NHS Staff

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the drop-out rate has been for student nurses in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Mr Andy Kerr: Attrition rates are not available broken down by NHS board area. However, the attrition rates for Scottish students completing in the academic years since 1999 are shown in the table:

  

Cohort
Attrition Rate


1996-97
21.2%


1997-98
21.6%


1998-99
21.8%


1999-2000
22.7%


2000-01
24.3%*



  Note: *As the data used is a snapshot at particular dates, the rates for the last full year (in this case 2000-01) will be inflated. This is because, at the snapshot date, there will still be a proportion who haven’t completed the course but will have done so when the next set of data is available.

NHS Staff

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided for training specialist multiple sclerosis nurses in each year since 1999.

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it intends to provide for training specialist multiple sclerosis nurses in each of the remaining years of this parliamentary session.

Mr Andy Kerr: The planning and training of the workforce, including MS nurses, is primarily a matter for individual NHS boards.

NHS Staff

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage it pays of the salaries of specialist multiple sclerosis nurses.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive does not directly pay anything towards the salaries of NHS staff, including specialist multiple sclerosis nurses, as funding is allocated by the Scottish Executive to health boards according to the Arbuthnott Formula.

NHS Staff

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3336 by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 November 2003, how many unfilled vacancies existed in the NHS for consultant psychiatrists in all disciplines in (a) 2003 and (b) 2004 and how many such vacancies currently exist.

Mr Andy Kerr: Information on psychiatric consultant vacancies in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce .

  Section B gives details of all medical and dental staff employed in NHS Scotland. In particular, tables B11 and B12 show the whole-time equivalent (WTE) and headcount number of psychiatric consultant vacancies for years 2003 and 2004, broken down by NHS board area. Latest available figures are at 30 September 2004.

National Health Service

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is general practice for the availability of NHS land and property to be trawled for possible disposal to other public bodies.

Mr Andy Kerr: It is a mandatory requirement of the NHSScotland Property Transactions Handbook that NHSScotland bodies carry out trawl procedures, in accordance with departmental guidance, to identify any relevant interest in a property and to deal direct with any prospective purchaser who expresses such an interest.

  Departmental guidance, which mirrors that contained in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM), requires NHSScotland bodies to carry out a trawl of Scottish Executive departments and sponsored bodies. The trawl process is now administered by Executive’s Property Advice Division which circulates details electronically of those properties identified as surplus to requirement for operational purposes.

  Where an interest is noted there are detailed guidelines contained within the SPFM on a mechanism for dealing with the price at which the property should transfer that is economical, transparent and fair and which is designed to avoid public bodies incurring unnecessary costs in relation to property that is already held within the public sector.

National Health Service

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is normal procedure for the NHS to include clawback clauses in contracts of sale of land or property.

Mr Andy Kerr: It is not normal practice for clawback clauses to be included when concluding missives for the sale of surplus NHSScotland property.

  However, in every disposal NHSScotland bodies are required to consider, in the light of professional advice, whether clawback/right of pre-emption or other provisions covering future change of use should be included in the disposition as part of the terms of sale. Where the planning position is uncertain or enquiries regarding the planning consents likely to be granted have not been satisfactorily resolved the use of such provisions must be considered. Advice from the property adviser and where appointed the independent valuer will be critical in deciding what safeguards are put in place.

National Health Service

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what incidences there have been, if it is normal procedure for clawback clauses to be included in sale contracts within the NHS, of NHS bodies failing to include such clauses over the last ten years.

Mr Andy Kerr: As it is not normal practice to include clawback clauses it is not possible to answer this question.

  Post-transaction monitoring is an integral part of the internal audit programme within NHSScotland boards with audit committees responsible for the oversight of these programmes. Boards are responsible for ensuring that annual monitoring reports on completed property transactions are submitted to the department.

  Over the last five years, post-transaction monitoring returns to the Health Department have not revealed any instance where a clawback provision had been omitted where the circumstances of sale suggested that such provision should have been included.

National Health Service

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that the disposal of NHS land and property achieves full value.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM), issued by Scottish ministers, provides guidance to the Scottish Executive and other relevant bodies on the proper handling of public funds, including property. The SPFM includes detailed guidance on the disposal of surplus property and this guidance is replicated in the NHSScotland Property Transaction Handbook which is provided as a ready source of reference for all NHSScotland bodies.

  NHSScotland bodies are free to conclude property transactions without reference to the Health Department unless particular circumstances require notification to and the approval of the Accountable Officer. However, they are required to adhere to the guidance contained in the handbook which includes not only the mandatory requirements with which bodies must comply but also guidance on best practice in managing property transactions.

  One of the principal means by which the department ensures that full value is achieved is by the requirement for a property adviser, an appropriately qualified external adviser, to be appointed for every transaction. The property adviser assumes overall responsibility for advising on the non-legal aspects of a transaction. In major or potentially difficult transactions an Independent Valuer must be appointed as a second source of independent professional advice.

  It also places responsibility on NHSScotland bodies for ensuring that on completion each transaction is duly certified. The purpose of certification is to ensure that the responsibility for property transactions given to NHSScotland bodies is properly recognised and acted upon by bodies’ chief executives who are ultimately responsible for the overall management of all property transactions.

  Finally, all transactions are subject to monitoring as part of each body’s internal audit programme and completed reports are submitted to the Health Department for consideration. And any further action deemed appropriate.

Organ Transplants

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many referrals for transplantation there have been in each of the last two years for which figures are available, broken down by NHS board area.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is not collected routinely.

Pharmacists

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many pharmacist vacancies there have been in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not collected centrally. However, information on NHS Scotland pharmacist staff in post is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, www.isdscotland.org/workforce . Section F gives details of the pharmacist staff in post in NHS Scotland. In particular, table F1 and F2 shows pharmacists by time and NHS board. Latest available figures are at 31 March 2005.

Road Accidents

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17655 by Mr Andy Kerr on 2 August 2005, what the reasons are for the discrepancy in the number of recorded injuries between the "STATS 19" returns and the recorded injury number in the answer to the question for the same period.

Mr Andy Kerr: The response to S2W-17655, answered on 2 August 2005, related to admissions to hospital resulting from road traffic accidents. The STATS 19 report publishes data that cover all injury road accidents (i.e. accidents in which one or more people are injured) which become known to the police in Scotland. Thus the two reports are not directly comparable. Police forces submit the STATS 19 returns, which give details of road accidents, in which one or more people were injured, which occurred on public roads and which were reported to them. Many of the casualties in such accidents are not injured sufficiently badly to be admitted to hospital - so would not be counted in the hospital admissions figures There will also be accidents which result in someone being admitted to hospital but which are not reported to the police. For example, a child who was badly injured when falling off a bike in the street, with no other vehicle being involved, might well be admitted to hospital (and recorded there as a road accident casualty) without the police being informed - so would not be counted in the Stats 19 figures.

  Road accident statistics are available in Key 2004 Road Accident Statistics, (Bib. number 36730) and Road Accidents Scotland 2003, (Bib. number 34523).

Roads

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been injured on the roads in each of the last 20 years.

Tavish Scott: The information requested is published in Table 2 of Key 2004 Road Accident Statistics , copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 36730).

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Parliamentary Security

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, in light of the security level in the parliament building being raised to amber, whether it will consider making provision for constituents and other interested parties to hand deliver correspondence and packages to the building and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

George Reid: In normal circumstances, i.e. when there is not an enhanced state of security alert, hand delivered correspondence and packages from unexpected sources are normally accepted at the security gatehouse where they are screened in an area which provides bomb blast protection. The deliverer is asked to remain until items are screened and deemed safe for internal delivery. Certain additional security measures apply during an enhanced state of alert. One of these is that we accept only fully documented deliveries. This removes the increased probability of identifying suspect packages from unknown sources. It also means that the safety of security staff is not unnecessarily compromised during higher risk periods.

  Security staff on duty will advise anyone wishing to deliver undocumented items of the reason for non acceptance and will provide full Parliament addressee details to enable the deliverer to use the external mail system if they wish. All external mail for the Parliament is screened at an off-site location prior to delivery.